Wake up! Auburn's first three games get morning starts for TV, including 11 a.m. season-opener

AUBURN, Alabama -- Better finish your breakfast early this football season. Auburn's first three games will kick off in the morning, at least in the Auburn time zone, and it's all going to start with an 11 a.m. season-opener against Utah State.

Alabama's first game was assigned an early start, too.

The SEC announced start times for Auburn's first two games today, and that goes with what we already knew about Game 3. Here you go...

**Sept. 3 vs. Utah State at home, 11 a.m. on either ESPN or ESPN2

**Sept. 10 vs. Mississippi State at home, 11:21 a.m. on the SEC Network

**Sept. 17 vs. Clemson on the road, 11 a.m. Central time, on ABC

Alabama also has an early start, an 11:20 a.m. kickoff against Kent State at home on Sept. 3. That will be on the SEC Network. TV will snap up the rest of the games later.

Auburn's early start to the season-opening game may be a rude awakening for some, but the decision by ESPN to televise it gives the Tigers national exposure right off the bat. Otherwise, the game would have been destined for a regional broadcast on another network.

As we wrote earlier, Mississippi State Athletics Director Scott Stricklin thanked Auburn, in a tweet, for agreeing to an early start because the Bulldogs have a Thursday night game against LSU the following week.

Interestingly, CBS' first three picks for the season did not include either Auburn or Alabama. The network selected Tennessee-Florida on Sept. 17, Florida-Georgia on Oct. 29 and Arkansas-LSU on Nov. 25. CBS has plenty of time to add the Tigers and Tide to the schedule. CBS will televise 15 SEC games.